Herbie...Fully LOUDed

It is 3:52 am. Matt and I are sitting on the couch. Why, do you ask? Well, because we own Herbie, that's why.

This past Thursday evening, Matt and I enjoyed an evening out, and on our way home had the unfortunate luck to run over a large nail in the road. Thankfully, it happened as we were turning on to our street, so we were able to get the car home. After trying unsuccessfully to patch the tire at home on Friday, we had a tow truck take the car to the nearest Pep Boys to replace the tire. Pep Boys replaced the tire, no charge, and Matt brought the car home, just in time for our Saturday evening date (we drove to Cheesecake Factory at Fashion Valley).

This should not have been an out of the ordinary trip, but because it is a car owned partially by the Queen of Bad Car Luck, Rory Brosius, it was. Briefly, let's recall some of my car ownership follies:

1. The 1982 Mercedes. Enough said.
2. The Sebring filling up with water and the entire electrical system going out.
2.Blowing up the Sebring on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in rush hour traffic
3. Blowing up the Jeep on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in ruch hour traffic, then getting stranded in Greenbelt until 8:30 at night
4. Nearly totaling Matt's Alero on day #3 of his deployment (this is why Herbie is currently pissed at us AND out to get us)

Now, lets get back to our lovely Saturday night out.

As we are driving down the I-5 towards San Diego, we hear a loud horn blast. Startled, we both look around to see no cars that we had cut off, no road raging drivers, no nothing. We quickly realized that this was indeed OUR car, honking at itself. This was surprising, mainly because the car has not had a working horn since I wrecked it LAST OCTOBER. Over the next 20 or so miles, every time Matt hit the brakes, the horn would blast. We pulled into Fashion Valley, the horn honked, we parked the car, the horn honked. Once we parked, Matt got out to disconnect the horn, but couldn't figure out which fuse to disconnect. We had dinner, came back to the car, and Matt opened the door for me, once he closed it, Herbie honked loudly, once, which sent us into fits of laughter. Matt thought he managed to un-stick the horn after we loudly honked at several cars in the parking lot. We drove home without incident, and laughed as we pulled into our apartment complex at 11:30, thinking how hilarious it would be if our horn started honking.

Not so hilarious, actually. 4 hours after we pulled in, the horn began to blast, without stopping. We both woke up with a start, and Matt ran down stairs. He said it was funny, because he could see every one's rear lights flashing as they pushed the remotes to make sure the obnoxious car was not theirs. After a few minutes, I heard the horn stop and Matt came back in the house and told me he was going to look up the "issue" online. He said that there were 21 instances of strange horn blasting and in most, after the first loud honking, there was a second; as he was saying this, the horn began to honk again! He got it to stop, again, then found out which fuse to disconnect.

Now that the fuse is disconnected we both have adrenalin stomachaches and pounding hearts, and can not sleep.

Thanks to Pep Boys, who put our car on the lift, shorted something out and gave our car the automobile equivalent of Turret's Syndrome. The Brosius family (and neighbors) really appreciate it. Let's hope that Herbie is done with his outbursts for a little while.